Around 200 million leva had been invested in vote-buying in the latest municipal elections in Bulgaria, data from the Centre for the study of democracy (CSD) showed.

German ambassador to Bulgaria, Michael Geier, said that the 2007 municipal elections had shown that organised crime groups had entered the municipal councils, Dnevnik daily said.

According to data from the CSD, the most profitable form of organised crime in Bulgaria was trafficking girls, where profits were estimated at around 1 billion euro per year.

According to research by the CSD, which was presented by Thimor Bezlov, the roots of Bulgarian organised crime resembled that of Russian organised crime. In both countries there were three sources for organised crime, former sportsmen, former employees of the Interior Ministry and former prisoners.

Another source of organised crime were the oligarchy, among whom were previous businessmen and party leaders, but also officers of the state security agency. Research showed that in the mid-90s, one third of imported cars had been stolen. The organisations that secured this massive inflow of stolen cars, were insurers, Bezlov said. Turnover in the stolen cars market in 2006 was estimated at 55 million leva. Between 200 and 300 people took part in this market, Bezlov said.

Turnover in prostitution was estimated at between 100 and 170 million leva annually. In the Netherlands, between 2000 and 2003, most complaints were filed by Bulgarian prostitutes. In Germany, with the largest market for sexual services in Europe, 402 Bulgarian prostitutes filed complaints between 2001 and 2005. Total export in prostitution was estimated at between 900 million and 1.8 billion euro, the research showed.

Bezlov said that Bulgarian market for heroin, marijuana, amphetamine and cocaine was between 108 and 234 million leva annually. He said that the drugs market in Sofia had managed to maintain itself and its borders were those of the regional police directorate.

Since Bulgaria entered the EU, markets for stolen cars, narcotics and the sexual market had visibly shrunk. New trends were the legalisation of businesses and multinational corporations entering the market, Bezlov said. The big problem in Bulgaria, he said, was that the oligarchy started to legalise itself.